From The Wreckage
by ToinKs
Summary: A fiery accident involving an Eitoku student on her way home and a nameless stranger in his black Porsche marks the meeting of two fates. They say, Love blooms in the most unexpected places, but can it bloom from the wreckage?
1. Crash and Burn

**A/N:** My come-back fic after 4 years. Not quite sure where I'm going to go with this, but I think it's a pretty interesting plot. I'd appreciate your feedback.

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**FROM THE WRECKAGE**

**CHAPTER 1**

**Crash and Burn**

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Her books were all strewn across the asphalt. Her leftover lunch now scattered everywhere. The sound of the loud crash still rang in her ears, echoing in her head.

She blinked rapidly at the crumpled mess in front of her, trying to assess what had happened. It had looked like a giant hand from heaven fell down and crushed a brand new car like it was a piece of paper.

And then she saw the driver still strapped to his seat. Blood was trickling down his face in a jagged line, seeping into the collar of his crisp white shirt, staining it red. She tried to find her balance, steadying herself as she stood. She ignored the ache of her own leg, untangled herself from her broken bicycle and staggered her way to the unconscious man.

"Sir," she whispered. "Please, wake up."

He stirred a little, barely opening his eyes, and grunted inaudibly.

"Can you hear me?" She asked softly, touching the face of the man. "Are you ok?"

"Whe--Where am I?" He struggled to form the words, his eyebrows knotted in confusion. "Wha--? What happened?"

"I don't know." She tried to force her short-term memory to work, but the effort only made her lightheaded.

"I think it was an accident. You were driving so fast." She tried hard to remember, but her own memories were jarred.

"I heard brakes screeching, smelled burnt rubber and all I remember was opening my eyes to see your car smashed into this big post." She finished, gesturing to the giant concrete post that was now standing in the middle of his black Porsche's scrunched up hood.

He winced in pain, wondering why he couldn't move his legs. "Smoke," he managed to utter, gasping for breath. "I smell s-smoke."

She looked at the front of his car and saw that smoke was billowing out furiously from under the hood. Something bad was bound to happen. With all her body's adrenaline built up, she pushed the car door open and tried to lift his arm over her shoulder. He felt limp and heavy, too heavy for a petite girl to carry by herself, especially with only one good leg.

The man coughed and her eyes watered as the smoke surrounded them with its nauseous smell. She could barely see her own feet from the thickening smog.

With giant effort, she closed her eyes and pulled him over her back. She half-limped and half-towed him as far from the wreckage as she could, collapsing onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road. She tried to catch her breath, but it was terribly painful even to breathe with bruised ribs.

She checked on the man, putting her ear on his chest, relieved to hear his heartbeat still going strong.

"Don't leave me." He croaked weakly, coughing as he did. He held her tightly with his right arm like he was holding onto dear life.

She didn't know why, but while he held her, she almost forgot the stabbing pain in her leg, her difficulty breathing and the fact that they were lying on the side of the road. It was as if, for that moment, everything felt right in the world and no matter what could have gone wrong, this nameless stranger would somehow keep her safe.

"I'll stay with you, promise." She reassured him, the words rasping out of her throat.

Something trickled down her face, making her wonder why she was suddenly crying; when she wiped her cheek and saw that her fingers were coated in red.

Before she could figure out her own body's damages, the black Porsche exploded, sending debris flying everywhere. She felt his arms tighten around her and her only instinct was to shield the man's body with her own.

Then, her vision of the angry red and orange flames dimmed at the edges and slowly faded to black.

The last thing she heard was the wails of sirens in the distance.

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**A/N:** This fic sort of took on a different road from where I first intended it to go. What do you think? Lemme know.

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	2. The Great Pineapple Head

**A/N: **Although I mostly tend to write angsty fics that revolve around unrequited love, I do enjoy the infamous squabbles of lovers. So, thanks for all the reviews and in return, here goes the second chapter. Enjoy!

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**FROM THE WRECKAGE**

**Chapter 2**

**The Great Pineapple-Head**

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She opened her eyes, squinting against the direct sunlight on her face. Her brother should have left the curtains closed before he went to school. Trying to shield the sunlight from her eyes, she saw something white and rough around her hand. The thick gauze smelled strongly of medicine.

She quickly sat up and scanned her environment. Too quick, her head hurt from the sudden movement and sent the room spinning. She slowly laid back down again, plumping her pillows to prop her head a little higher.

IV dripping. Rails on her bed. White sheets. White walls. That all-too-clean smell. Gauzed hand. Her left foot in a cast, hanging on a sling.

She was in the hospital. And she was probably running on a lot of painkillers.

"Finally," a male voice announced, "the sleeping bum has awakened."

The voice came from the man seated in a wheelchair, his legs were both in casts and his forehead was bandaged. It was the stranger.

He flipped the file holder with her charts open, scanning through its contents. "Makino Tsukushi, is it?" He asked, without looking at her.

"Your left ankle is broken and your right hand is sprained. Your forehead has a small wound that's been stitched. The doctor fixed everything, but they couldn't do anything about your face." He smirked, amused at his own joke.

"Who are you? You--you obnoxious moron?" Tsukushi snarled, clearly not amused at being awakened with an insult. Even though she hasn't gotten off the bed yet, she could already tell this was going to be a gotten–off-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed day. "

"Who am I?" he asked incredulously. "Do you not know _the_ great Doumyouji Tsukasa, commoner?"

"Great?" she scoffed.

Doumyouji Tsukasa. Doum-you-ji Tsu-ka-sa. Why was it so familiar? Doum—

Her mouth formed a small "o" as she realized who this haughty, big-headed, curly-haired man is.

The Doumyoujis are one of the richest families in Japan. They owned factories, hotels, restaurant chains, resorts and even the top school in the city. Name it; they probably have a share in it. Their names and faces were always plastered on the society pages. Their private lives are even discussed as topics on entertainment pages.

"Alas, she gets it." He drawled.

"Do you want to die?!" She screamed at him. This was not the best mood to mess with her, especially when she had just assessed how long she would need to recuperate and that meant no-work and therefore no-pay for a week or so. People with superiority complexes and pea-sized brains were just a few of her pet peeves, and as of this moment, this guy seemed to top her list.

"Yup. Wanted to, but obviously, didn't." He snootily replied.

Her jaw dropped at the arrogance that reeked from every pore of this self-centered, pompous, good-for-nothing Doumyouji Tsukasa.

"What's so shocking about that? You meddling, interfering commoner." He pronounced the last word with disgust.

She didn't think her jaw could drop any lower, but it somehow did.

"You stupid, _stupid_ idiot." Tsukushi enunciated the second adjective for better emphasis. "You want to kill yourself and endanger other people's lives in the process? You should've just jumped from the bridge and be done with it!"

"I might not have drowned. And who knows what parasites I could have gotten from the water?" He stuck his aristocratic nose in the air.

"You should have taken an overdose of pills then!" Tsukushi's pitch increased.

"I don't want to die like a druggie." If Tsukasa had wrecked their family name by dying like that, his mom would have resurrected him only to kill him again.

"You should have hung yourself on a tree!"

"I tried," he admitted grudgingly. "My bodyguards won't let me."

"Why don't you just jump off this balcony?!" It was a good idea. She would volunteer to push him herself.

"Can't. Unless you can pick me up with your extra-strength and throw me over?" Tsukasa motioned at both of his legs now cast in heavy concrete.

She gritted her teeth. "If I knew it was intentional, I should have left you in your darn _shmorsche_-Porsche to roast!"

"You should have! Then I would have succeeded at something!" He yelled back.

He childishly stuck his tongue at her. And she did the same.

Then, as though the arguing exhausted him, Tsukasa rolled his wheechair to face the window, his brooding mask covering the pain he had kept concealed over the years.

Silence hung heavily in the air.

"Why--" she asked timidly as guilt washed over Tsukushi in a wave. "Would you want to end your life like that?"

"I hate my life," he said as though simply stating a fact. "No, I take that back. I _don't_ have a life to hate. My witch of a mother dictates what happens and what cannot. She steers the direction and then forces me to follow. That's not a life I want to live."

_But, you have everything._ She thought, keeping the words to herself to avoid hurting him any further. She tried to understand, but couldn't quite see how an only male heir to a giant corporation be so miserable. He had the world at his feet, servants and bodyguards at his beck and call.

"You must have _some_ say in what goes on in your life?" she said in a much lower, much calmer voice.

"Ha! You really don't know me, or my family," he said with a sneer. "Every time I try to get out of it, the witch twists my arms so hard I feel like I'm going to break in half. I am in this situation not for a lack of trying." He looked at her pointedly, as though blaming her for his mis-suicide. He sounded so hopeless, so desperate for rescue.

If only she knew how empty his world is, how lonely he has been and how desperately he wanted to leave it all. They say the most important things were the ones unseen. In his case, he had never had his parents present during the most significant of events in his life, except maybe for schedule press conferences and those were never important to him. He had heard it a lot. People would say they'd give anything to have his life, but what they didn't know was how quickly he would give it up to trade for any of theirs.

A warm home. People to come home to. A family. Are they too much to ask for? His chest tightened as the sadness he kept trying to push back threatened to overwhelm him.

"Ah, whatever," he says, taking on his earlier dismissive tone. "I have to go before any of the nurses finds my room empty and sends in the SWAT team." He proceeds to roll his wheelchair to the door. "You're too nosy for your own good, commoner."

She tried hard to look at him with compassion and empathy. He was like a puzzle she just had to solve. How could this young man, not even reaching his prime, lose all hope to live?

"Hey Pineapple-head!" Tsukushi chuckled at his new name.

He paused at the door way and pointed to himself, raising both his eyebrows. "What did you call me?"

"Be ready at 6AM tomorrow."

"That early!? For what?" He asks skeptically. "Are you orchestrating my next suicide attempt?!"

_Tempting_. Tsukushi considered the thought for a bit, but decided to omit it from her plan.

"You're too nosy for your own good." She used his line against him and waved him away. "Just be ready."

"l'll check my schedule and see if I can squeeze you in." Tsukasa bluffed, turning his wheelchair out of the doorway

As he rolled himself down the empty corridor, he noticed his reflection from the glass windows and saw his thickly bandaged head, sprouting stubborn, brown curls.

"Pineapple-head, huh?" He muttered to himself, tousling his hair and smiling widely for the first time today.

(The nurses had to do a triple inventory check to make sure that they weren't missing any drugs, especially when Doumyouji Tsukasa kept grinning to himself all day.)

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**A/N:** Got the third chapter in the works. Hopefully, I'll get some clear direction as to where this plot would go. Should you have any suggestions/recommendations, feel free to message me. Ideas keep the creative juices running!


	3. Of Sunrise and Superweed

**A/N: **Took me a lot longer to finish this chapter, but it turned out longer than the first ones too. :) Hope you like it! Read and review please.

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**FROM THE WRECKAGE**

**Chapter 3**

**The Super Weed**

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The door slowly creaked to a close.

Makino Tsukushi was careful so that the rubber bases of her crutches didn't squeak on the floor as she crossed the corridor. It was just a little past six in the morning and the hallway was almost empty. She didn't know which room the "great" Doumyouji Tsukasa was staying in, but when she saw a man in a suit walk out from the far end of the hall, she had a strong gut feel of where he was.

It was a good thing the other bodyguard was sleeping on duty. He was wearing extra-dark sunglasses and had his back rigidly against his chair that you couldn't tell he was asleep, but his cover-up didn't disguise his chainsaw-like snoring.

Tsukushi peeped into the room. The dimly-lit room was twice as big as hers, looking much like a hotel suite than a hospital room except for the completely white walls. The walls were lined with flowers and gift baskets all the way to the doorway. One card read, "Get well soon, Mr. Doumyouji Tsukasa. From Reiji Corporation." The next came from some factory, followed by one from the family's realtor. She swallowed the pity she felt for him as she realized that all of them were impersonal.

"You _really_ are too nosy for your own good."

Tsukushi dropped the card at the sound of his voice.

"Shhh!" She put a finger to her mouth and gave him a stern look.

Doumyouji Tsukasa was already in his wheelchair, with fresh bandages and hair that looked much neater than yesterday. Tsukushi also noticed that he was already wearing a coat for going out. (_And he said he had to recheck his schedule to squeeze her in._)

"Hey," she whispered, approaching the bedside table where his cling-wrapped breakfast tray lay untouched. "Can you handle bringing the tray with us?"

"Why?" He asked, as if it was the last thing he'd expect her to say. "Don't they feed you? You poor people are always begging for food." Busy insulting Tsukushi, Tsukasa didn't see her left hand coming forcefully from behind.

"Oww!" he rubbed the spot where he got Tsukushi-smacked. "What the heck was that for?!"

"Keep your voice down and just bring the tray like I asked you to." Tsukushi warned in a low voice, headed to the door and beckoned for him to follow.

Tsukasa, with his curls out of place again and the breakfast tray in his lap, grudgingly followed her outside. They sneaked past the snoring bodyguard who was still in dreamland with Marilyn Monroe, totally oblivious that his ward had already escaped.

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"Why don't we just take the elevator?" Tsukasa's impatient voice echoed from the walls of the fire exit staircase.

"Because…" Tsukushi said, getting exasperated. "We might bump into one of your bodyguards and get dragged back to our rooms. Then we'd be locked in for the entire day, no, entire duration of our confinement."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Tsukasa sounded like a kid incessantly bombarding his parents with 'are we there yet' questions.

"Can't and won't tell you. You'll see it when we get on the 3rd floor." She was starting to wonder why she cooked up this idea in the first place. Still getting used to her crutches, Tsukushi winced as her bandaged foot landed on the step. Her ankle was still aching and her sprained hand didn't help in the equal distribution of her weight.

Tsukasa easily rolled down the ramp right beside the stairs and waited for her at the next floor. He glanced at the painted number "8" on the wall and realized how long he would have to wait before Tsukushi even completes one flight, taking one agonizingly long step at a time.

Nobody should make him wait _that_ long.

As soon as Tsukushi ambled near enough, Tsukasa hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap, almost getting hit by her right crutch in the process.

"Whoa!" She screamed, toppling and feeling the coldness of the metal tray under her butt. Tsukushi stubbornly pushed against his arms, but Tsukasa kept pushing her back down.

"It's the only way we'll get to where we're going before all my hair turns gray! How long would it have taken you to go down with that leg of yours?!" Tsukasa scolded her. He'd been very patient with her, but she really didn't need to test his patience at such an early hour.

"Let go!" Tsukushi squirmed, but couldn't get up from where she was oddly positioned, his arms holding her in place.

"Stop struggling or you'll end up turning all the food to mush!" He scolded her. She turned her face to answer only to find his eyes boring so closely on hers. Despite the furrow in his eyebrows, there was no anger in his eyes. In contrary, he looked quite naive, child-like and innocent.

Tsukasa was equally, if not more, surprised at the sudden hitch in his breath and the thumping in his chest. He had always prided himself in being a strong and independent man, but when she looked at him with those reflective brown ores, he felt the tugging of a little boy inside him.

Tsukushi didn't want his help. She was the independent, often loud and opinionated girl that worked for everything she had. Ever since she was old enough to ride her bike, she has been delivering newspapers to help with the family income. Her mother had trouble with keeping within budget and her father had a small gambling problem, so she knew early on that she had a big responsibility to carry. Growing up with debt-collectors banging on their doorstep almost every weekend made her hate being indebted to people, and that meant stubbornly refusing the assistance of others.

But like a flashback of the night they first met, Tsukasa's arms provided her with a secure, protected feeling she wasn't familiar with. It was as though being this near him; she could lay down all her defences, throw caution to the wind and completely trust him to take care of her.

_Almost_ _completely_, she thought.

She blinked, jolting her brain back to the present moment and realized how close their faces were. Quickly, she turned her head away, hiding the rosy blush on her cheeks.

"Fine," she muttered sulkily. "But don't get any ideas, buster."

Tsukasa was grinning from behind her, wondering if he had gone clinically insane. This foolish girl was fighting him off (probably giving him a couple of bruises in the process), when hundreds of girls would have given their body and soul to sit on his lap and have him hold them this way. She was even sulking!

_She's sooo weird._ Tsukasa concluded in his head. He just didn't _get_ her.

Tsukushi had way of getting on his nerves, annoying him to no end, and yet somehow had a way to instantly calm them soon after. The old Tsukasa would have screamed at her and then left her at the top of the flight. He might have even considered pushing her down the stairs, if she was irritating enough.

But this _new_ Tsukasa, _well_, he decided to carry her instead.

Maybe the accident had somehow caused his brain to malfunction. Or the hard head-smacking she did to him altered his personality. Whatever it was, Tsukasa knew for sure that he was different, like an edited version of himself. He wasn't sure if he liked it, but since he had been trying to kill himself, maybe it was high time for change.

Tsukasa supposed that if this was a new him, he'd be willing to try out new things, _right_? The gears in his brain started to clink. Seeing the ramp beside the stairs, he had a fantastic idea to try out his new "wheels."

_Whoosh!_

Tsukushi had to clamp her mouth with her left hand, squeeze her eyes shut, latch onto his neck as Tsukasa suddenly slid his wheelchair down the ramp, manoeuvred a slim turn and continued going down the next flight of stairs. It was too early for Tsukushi to enjoy their "rollercoaster" ride as they went round and round down the ramp in a dizzying motion.

"We're here!" Tsukasa cheerfully announced to Tsukushi who was still clutching onto him like she was going to fall off—even though it's been a while since they've stopped. He thinks he had just discovered a new sport, and the rush of adrenaline as his new "wheels" careened dangerously at every turn was a great wake-me-upper.

Trying to keep whatever pride she had left, Tsukushi immediately pushed against his chest and stood up, her right crutch intentionally hitting the side of the face in the process—twice. Tsukasa was fortunate that she hadn't had anything to vomit out, or she would have thrown up on him too, adding insult to injury with pleasure.

_If she keeps at it, she'll break something else!_ Tsukasa thought, wriggling his jaw.

She hobbled to the emergency exit door and pulled it by her good hand, letting in a sudden burst of light. Tsukasa followed her, surprised that they were on a balcony at the end of the 3rd floor. The walls were lined with potted plants that looked the same as those in his room. They were probably put out here to absorb sunlight, and made the place seem like a small garden than a storage area.

Tsukushi sat at an old bench near the ledge, watching the newly-risen sun and enjoying the warmth of its rays. He slowly approached her, stopping at her left side and secretly watching her in curiosity. Her cheeks took on a rosier hue, her lips tugged upwards in a small smile and her eyes sparkled with tears. She had a similar expression as Tsukasa's mother when their hotel opened its 50th franchise last year. But he didn't understand how could something so simple affect her so profoundly. He'd never seen anyone look so happy at seeing the sun so early in the morning.

"Are you about to cry?" Tsukasa's loud voice interrupted her reverie. He had been staring at her for a while and was beginning to feel awkward.

"No." Tsukushi lied, blinking back her tears and sniffling once. "I just love watching the sun rise, its warm rays reaching outward to conquer the dark and cold skies. A new day always means new choices and new chances."

She continued in a sing-song voice, "The sun's up and I'm feeling much, much happier. Are you--"

"Happier?! What about this drab place and you dragging me out so early in the morning could make anyone happy!?" Tsukasa complained brashly, frowning at her as he did. "Only stupid girls with nothing to do would enjoy something like this."

He turned his back to conceal the small smile playing at his lips. Tsukasa's ballooned ego was still in denial, but deep inside, the sun's warmth somehow penetrated through his thick wall of depression and managed to make him a little optimistic, something he hadn't felt for a long time.

"That's just hunger speaking, Grumpy Pineapple-head. Let's eat!" she said, ignoring his last statement and goes on to remove the cling wrap from the breakfast tray. "Oh, you should thank my butt for keeping the food warm." She grinned cheekily.

Though he wanted to keep with his surly, devil-may-care image, he couldn't help but laugh at her silliness. He would never admit it**,** but she was effectively making him feel an eensy-teeny-weeny bit better everyday. Like a sneaky weed, the so-called great Doumyouji Tsukasa didn't notice that commoner Makino Tsukuhi was growing on him.

"You're not supposed to be here." The words sliced through the moment they were sharing.

Tsukushi's hand paused halfway to her mouth and looked at Tsukasa, who looked quite as surprised as she was. She looked so guilty, as though she'd just been caught cutting classes from school or taking out a book from the library without passing it by the check-out counter.

"Patients aren't supposed to be here." With a small ruffling behind them, the owner of the voice stood up, brushing his white pants and coat.

"Ah, Rui! You really shouldn't be sneaking up on people like that! I might die of a heart attack!" Tsukasa reprimanded, showing no respect whatsoever to the young doctor.

"And you shouldn't be disturbing someone's sleep…especially when that someone has had a 36-hour straight shift." Rui rubbed his tired eyes and stifled a yawn. "Why are you up this early anyway?"

"Because the early worm gets the bird."

A flicker of amusement passed Rui's face. "You have it backwards, Tsukasa."

Tsukasa had been known to mangle famous sayings into twisted, unrecognizable lines, so Rui knew his friend was being himself, and not suffering from possible brain damage. Not forgetting his manners, he now turned his attention towards the other patient, who was watching them with amusement.

"Hanazawa Rui." He introduced himself, extending a hand to Tsukushi.

"Makino Tsukushi." She smiled at him, realizing that this was the same name on her charts. He was her doctor.

Hanazawa Rui smiled back, flashing a brilliant set of teeth. Tsukushi couldn't help but blush as he continued to stare at her. She has always had a thing for doctors, what with their noble profession and their immaculate white coats. This one was exceptionally handsome. His voice was low and soothing, his eyes were kind, and his smile was endearing. With extra qualities like that, Tsukushi couldn't help but feel the quickening of her heartbeat.

_We finally meet, Supergirl_. Rui thought.

This was the unexpected hero that saved his bestfriend Doumyouji Tsukasa when he had a fiery car accident. They were brought in the ER a little past midnight in the hospital where he was taking his first year of residency. His bestfriend had broken both his legs with the impact of the crash while this girl suffered from a broken ankle and sprained hand. Despite all her injuries, she managed to carry Tsukasa, who probably was double her weight, away from the blazing wreck, with nothing more than sheer determination.

He always had this ability to read people's real thoughts and feelings, even when they don't say a thing. This heightened sensitivity is also what made him an accomplished doctor as he is somehow able to detect a patient's needs. When he diagnosed her, Rui was already being inexplicably drawn to his courageous patient.

After Tsukushi had been brought to her room, the doctor made sure that she was comfortable and well-monitored. She was an easy read, having an open and sincere expression on her face slept, but Rui decided she was someone he would like know more, like a beautiful novel he couldn't put down. He was only reading the prologue at that point, and yet he couldn't help but already be completely fascinated.

Tsukasa watched as Rui and Tsukushi stare at each other unblinkingly, wondering if he was seeing sparks or were they simply figments of his imagination.

He wasn't sure of what this meant but, he couldn't help but feel the onset of an irritation, like a rash he wanted to scratch out. His heart pounded harder, blood pumping in his ears. He didn't care about this stupid, loud and violent girl that he barely knew, so he shouldn't be affected if they were attracted to each other, _right_?

_Right?_

So, why was Doumyouji Tsukasa suddenly feeling green…and monstrous?

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**A/N: ** Now I really don't know what to do with the next chapter. LOL. I would need to do some intense brain-cracking for the next one, so your reviews, suggestions, ideas will be more helpful than ever!


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